Overgram: Captioning Your Instagram Images

When I’m sharing pictures on Instagram, I often want to add a caption of some sort, and while I can insert my own comment below the picture, it’s not always enough. I want my text to be a part of the image to create as much of an impact as the original picture and all my fun Instagram filters.

With that in mind, Overgram is bringing captioning to Instagram. Sure, you could always caption an image, load it into Instagram and share it with your friends, but Overgram is making that process seamless. From start to finish, it has Instagram in mind. Does Overgram have what it takes to replace some of those extra captioning apps?

Captioning a Square Peg

When you start a new project, Overgram will prompt you to take a new photo or choose one from your photostream. Overgram then lets you crop your photo before you go any further. This is really important! Your iPhone is rectangular but Instagram, the ultimate destination, is decidedly square. You don’t want to start adding text to a long image and end up having to crop some of it off once you get into Instagram, do you? I didn’t think so.

It’s easy to crop an image in preparation to share via Instagram, and the interface is simple to use.

The interface in Overgram is really fun to use, and the control wheel that houses all the edit commands keeps everything clean and uncluttered. Spin the tool you want to use down until it’s highlighted, but when you’re done, just spin it out of your way.

Double tap the text on your image to edit. Type out whatever you want. You can use as much text and as many line breaks as you like, but remember you may change the text size and font later, causing everything to go whackadoo. Text color also gets a makeover here. Everything has to be all the same color, unfortunately, but really, my love of rainbow text just borders on the decadent sometimes, anyway.

Customize your text, color and font.

When you’re done, swipe the wheel back and forth to choose your attributes. Tap Font to choose your typeface. There are some pretty good ones included in the free version, but there’s more in the paid app. There are even more available through an in-app purchase, too. Try a font on for size, but don’t worry if it doesn’t work, you can always change it out again.

Size your text up or down and align it however you’d like.

Size lets you make your text bigger or smaller. There’s not a point size, so you’ll just tap the plus and minus until everything looks good. Align will center your text or zip it over to the left or the right. You can drag the text around too, so if you’ve already done that, align isn’t going to work quite as advertised.

Save will, unsurprisingly, save your image to the camera roll. Reset discards the current image and lets you start over entirely. Share, though, is what you’re here for, the big show. That’s what’s going to open your image in Instagram, all text changes included. You can then go about applying filters and doing some real sharing on your social networks.

Free or Paid?

Overgram is the free version of a slightly more feature-rich app, Over. There’s a couple of times you’ll be prompted to purchase the paid app while using Overgram. I love supporting developers with hugs, kisses and money, but I like the free app for sharing to Instagram, though there are a few drawbacks.

The first drawback is the watermark. Every Overgram image is stamped with a little Overgram logo in the bottom corner. This absolutely doesn’t bother me, but some people aren’t going to like it. That said, it’s not an eyesore and does a good job of promoting an app you’re getting some use out of.

It’s harder to write off the second drawback to the free version of Overgram, the lack of fonts. There aren’t any serif fonts and only one sans serif; the rest are just there for fun. You’ll have to upgrade to get really great sans serifs like Helvetica or any serifs at all. You only get an additional fifteen fonts, though, and to get any more than that, you’ll have to make another purchase.

Despite the fewer features of Overgram, it’s easier to share to Instagram.

I have a pretty serious peeve with the paid app, though; it doesn’t seem to crop the image for you. You certainly aren’t prompted to crop your picture when you first open a new project as in the free version, and I can’t find that function anywhere. If I want to move my picture over to Instagram, I have to first save it and then reopen it and crop it in Instagram, hoping I don’t cut off any of my text. Over is much more setup to be a standalone, operating independently from Instagram (and without the necessary cropping), but I downloaded Overgram specifically for that Instagram integration. The skinny is if you try to use the paid version with Instagram, you’re going to have to do some extra work or you’ll have some funny looking pictures.

Conclusion

Overgram is a great app for adding text to images you’re planning to share via Instagram. There are already lots of apps to add text to images, including Over, some with built-in mini social networks, but none come to mind that are so well integrated with Instagram. That’s the hook of Overgram — that it works so well with Instagram. It’s worth noting that all the customization and sharing is there if you choose to buy Over instead, it’s just a lot less Instagram oriented.

Beyond the easy integration with Instagram, there’s still a lot of customization. I was expecting a couple of different fonts, and that was it. It was really surprising to see just how much I could tailor my text in Overgram, though. The interface makes it incredibly easy to switch among the attributes, too. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but the ease with which my photos open in Instagram and all the things I could do with my text before I got that far really sold me on Overgram.